9 August 2017

9 August 1971 – Internment without trial imposed by unionist government

» Shane MacThomáis

Relying on hopelessly outdated lists containing 450 names provided by the RUC Special Branch, the British Army swept into nationalist areas and arrested 342 men

PLACED
on the statute books in 1922 in the immediate aftermath of partition by Sir
Richard Dawson Bates, interment –
the imprisonment of people without charge or trial – was used by successive
Ulster Unionist Party regimes in an effort to smash nationalist resistance.

Throughout 1971, the war in the North
intensified as resistance to unionist repression grew. It was becoming clear
that – after 50 years of misrule, discrimination and blatant sectarianism – the
unionist power structure was fractured and so internment, the tried and trusted
weapon used on many an occasions by unionists with the full backing of the
British Government, was introduced.

In the early hours of 9 August 1971, the
British Army launched their internment operation across the Six Counties.

Relying on hopelessly outdated lists
containing 450 names provided by the RUC Special Branch, the British Army swept
into nationalist areas and arrested 342 men. Key IRA figures on the lists (and
many who never appeared on them) were warned before the swoop began. The list
included leaders of the Civil Rights movement such as Ivan Barr and Michael
Farrell.

Within 48 hours, 116 of those arrested were
released; the remainder were detained at Crumlin Road Prison and on the prison
ship The Maidstone.

But, as historian Tim Pat Coogan noted in
his book The IRA:

“What they did not include was a single loyalist.

“Although the UVF had begun the killing and
bombing, this organisation was left untouched, as were other violent loyalist
satellite organisations such as Tara, the Shankill Defence Association and the
Ulster Protestant Volunteers.

“It is known that [Prime Minister] Faulkner
was urged by the British to include ‘a few Protestants’ in the trawl but he
refused.”

In fact, the first loyalist internees were
not arrested until 2 February 1973.

● Internment order and unionist Prime Minister Brian Faulkner

Of the hundreds detained, all were
physically abused but 12 were selected for special treatment.

These had been secretly moved from the
internment clearing centres to an unknown destination and held for seven days.
They had hoods on their heads throughout, had no idea where they were and were
kept completely isolated. Their interrogators deceived some detainees into
believing that they were to be thrown from high-flying helicopters. (In reality,
the blindfolded detainees were thrown from a helicopter that hovered
approximately four feet above the ground.)

All were severely beaten, forced to stand
spreadeagled against walls until they collapsed, given hardly any food and
subjected to ‘white noise’, which prevented them from sleeping. All the while
they were constantly interrogated.

This was a new technique of sensory
deprivation designed to disorient the mind and facilitate interrogation in-depth.

The order for the removal of the men had
been personally signed by Prime Minister Brian Faulkner.

They
became known as “The Hooded Men”; they are still pursuing justice for their
ill-treatment.

The combination of botched arrests, stories
of brutality escaping from the internment centres and the use of internment as
a form of communal punishment and humiliation unleashed a wave of anger and
resistance across Ireland. This anger took the form of increased support for
the IRA and the commencement of a campaign of civil disobedience that enjoyed
overwhelming support within the nationalist community in the North.

Ballymurphy in west Belfast was one of the
areas to suffer most from the huge military operation that saw over 2,000
British soldiers deployed.

On 9 August, two British soldiers were
killed, as were ten civilians, seven of whom were nationalists. After four
days, 19 civilians were dead and three British soldiers.

In the two days after internment, eight
people from the greater Ballymurphy area were shot dead by the British Army,
which had sided with loyalists who were attacking Springfield Park. Among the
dead was Fr Hugh Mullan, shot through the heart as he went to give the Last
Rites to a young man wounded by British Army gunfire.

As trouble erupted in Ardoyne, loyalists
moved out of their houses in the area and torched their homes as they left so
that Catholics couldn’t be housed in them. Three people from the area – IRA
Volunteer Paddy McAdorey, 16-year-old Leo McGuigan and a Protestant woman,
Sarah Worthington – were shot dead by the British Army in the hours after the
introduction of internment.

In Derry City, barricades were again erected
around Free Derry and for the next 11 months these areas effectively seceded
from British control.

● Free Derry resistance

Protests, street demonstrations and riots
were common as the entire community sought to demonstrate its opposition to
internment.

At the same time, a rents and rates strike
was introduced in protest against internment and within weeks was supported by
26,000 households.

A day of action on 16 August saw 8,000 Derry workers on
strike. The next day, 30 prominent Derry nationalists withdrew from public
bodies. Three days later, 130 non-unionist local councilors across the North
withdrew from local authorities.

The IRA held a press conference in Belfast
on 13 August at which Joe Cahill, the Officer Commanding the IRA in Belfast,
said that internment had had no noticeable effect on IRA structures and the
campaign would continue.

In the following months a number of rallies
and marches were planned.

On Christmas Day 1971, 4,000 protesters
attempted to march from Belfast to Long Kesh. The march was blocked before
reaching its destination on the M1 motorway and dispersed.

On 22 January, another protest march took
place at Magilligan Strand, not far from Derry City. This protest was blocked
by the British Army and dispersed with violence, in which members of the
Parachute Regiment were prominent. (The next anti-internment rally was
planned for Derry, on Sunday 30 January 1972 – a day that was to go down in infamy when the Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 people.)

Internment was to continue until 5 December
1975. During that time, 1,981 people were detained – 1,874 were from the
nationalist community, 107 were from the unionist community.

Internment without trial was imposed on 9
August 1971.

◼︎ This piece was written by the late Shane MacThomáis and is republished in his memory.

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